Thailand’s Livestock Development Department has impounded about 59 tonnes of pork, suspected to have been smuggled into the country, at a cold storage facility in Nakhon Pathom province .
The department’s Director-General Sorawit Thaneeto said that inspectors searched the facility today, after the department had received information that it might be storing illegal pork from abroad.
The search uncovered 1,510 boxes containing legs of pork, weighing about 22,650 kgs, apparently originating in Poland, 80 more boxes of legs of pork from an unknown source, 1,433 boxes of pork bearing Brazilian brand “Seara”, 500 boxes of pork from Germany under the brand “Westfleisch” and 180 more boxes of pork from an unknown source.
Sorawit said that all the meat was impounded, by virtue of the Animal Epidemics Act, and the owner of the cold storage facility has been given 15 days to present, to livestock officials, an import permit and a permit for the transport of the meat. Failing that he will face legal action.
A number of pigs in Thailand succumbed to swine fever last year and this, prompting the authorities to designate areas of containment and enforce culling. The hoarding of pork and pork offal in cold storage facilities is rampant, contributing to the sky-high pork prices early this year, with a number of such facilities being raided and their contents impounded.
